Rainy River Fishing Report

[fishnut2]

Fished west of Baudette from 6-8 pm tonight with Benelli Dude and we did all right. Caught a 14, 16, 20, 21, 24, 26, and 27 and missed 7 good bites. Everything on frozen shiners and jigs. We were anchored in 14-15 fow. Not bad after all the other reports I have read. Had a friend fishing up by Birchdale and he said it was awful. BD and I had a good time with our foreign exchange student.

[Handsonthepole]

Just back from three days of tough fishing. Actually cut short our trip as the walleye bite is poor at best. Chased the ice but ended up back up river. I understand there are a few (very few) scattered reports of fish being caught but the water is too muddy and cold right now due to side stream and ditch runoff. A good back up plan is to bring crawlers and fish sturgeon. The bite is incredible for them. Anchor and wait for them to come to you. We actually had better walleye fishing when achored and fishing for sturgeon. Still nice to be out though.....Good luck!

[sicheneder]

spent fri and sat(4/8-9) on the river,we fished towards the lake and first part of the river. the access by the mouth had opened by saturday.

just got back and everyone was converting to sturgeon fishing as we left. lots of boats fishing sturgeon yesterday and way fewer # of boats on fri. we saw lots of boats hooked up on fri. as we ran by there was 3 battling fish.looked to pick-up as the day went on.

walleye were not biting. the water was very muddy and getting worse by the day. Fri we caught 3 walleyes and 1 sauger between the 3 of us(21",18",13",10"). the other boat we came with caught 3 walleyes on fri(27.25",27",small). they switched over to sturgeon fishing on sat. we caught 0 fish on saturday and chose to leave early.

[bak2MN]

Just got back from fishing on Sat this morning was raining so didnt go out. Sat fished out by Wheelers Point towards the lake and all day could only muster up 1 17" walleye. 4 of us in the boat, also caught 3 sturgeon 36, 42, and a 55 incher by my 10 year old nephew. I would say 95% of people were sturgeon fshing just anchored. Made for moving around real tough with everyone anchored.

Canadian DNR told us we were on their waters and to get over once. Lucky not to get into trouble.

Fishing was terrible I would not go up unless you plan on sturgeon fishing. Alot were caught Sat. Heard of a 78 incher was caught but no proof.

[brmuskie]

Just got home this afternoon - picked up some walleye in one spot on Friday - not good though so we fished sturgeon half the day Friday and all day Sat. Did good on sturgie - too stubborn to not fish today - should have came straight home. River is full of debris and impossible to fish.

[jwmiller33]

The sturgeon fishing was UNREAL yesterday. I have never seen so many people catching so many big fish. Tons of boats out in 4 mile bay where the sturgeon were super active. It seemed at any point throughout the day you could look in any direction and see someone with a fish on. I broke my personal best sturgeon record .... TWICE...

first, was with a 58

then, when I thought it couldn't get any better, I hooked into this 68 incher. It took 65 minutes to reel in!

I got a ton of good video footage of me fighting the 68 incher. I also got about 2 minutes of my step brother fighting and landing his 52. I will post the video after I edit it into a sweet video!

I've never seen better sturgeon fishing in my life than what I experienced yesterday! We ended up with 15 fish on the day (in 4 hrs), including a 48, 49, 52, 58 and 68

[gloomiseye]

Wow those are some sweet fish, congrats!

[JimBuck]

Thanks for the report. FWIW I'd consider stepping up to a 60 or 80 lb. test to avoid such a long fight. Congrats on the PB. Sounds like a blast.

[jwmiller33]

Jim, have you ever caught a 100lb sturgeon before? I doubt anyone is going to get a 100lb fish in any faster than an hr without breaking a rod. The rod was the weak thing in the equation, as you can see from the picture below, and theres not much a guy can do about that when you have a 9ft HEAVY rod. It was just sitting on bottom under the boat for a long time and I couldn't get him to budge. My rod was simply not strong enough to lift him off the bottom (as you can see from the pic below). If I pulled any harder on the rod, it would have broken (it was making weird noises after a while). When a fish is 100lbs, you just have to tire him out before you can bring him in. There is no way your going to horse it in without breaking a rod or the hooking popping out, and I didn't want either to happen

If you have a problem with long sturgeon fights, you should be preaching to the guys out there who hook them on walleye rods and fight them for 3-4 hrs. Talked to several guys at the landing and at Wigwam yesterday who saw it happen yesterday, as did I. Guys spent half their day fight one fight eventually to have it break off after 3-4 hrs

[DTro]

Fishing was terrible I would not go up unless you plan on sturgeon fishing. Alot were caught Sat. Heard of a 78 incher was caught but no proof.

Terrible.....just terrible.

[jwmiller33]

Another important note: the forks broke loose this morning, partly because of the massive rainstorm and there was a ton of debris floating down the river. So much debris, it was pretty much impossible to sturgeon fish effectively (according to a second hand report). Hopefully it clears up by the weekend for all guys going up for the sturgeon excursion.

[matt_shermoen]

I can confirm the the Little Fork went out today. We have had heavy rain all day. Good luck to all you fishing sturgeon. Should be better fishing by the weekend. There are a few spots to fish east of the landing at Pelland and the Shorewood land is still closed.

[Traxxx]

Was planning on coming up tomorrow with my Dad and brother. Wondering if 4-mile will be an option if the river is full of debris?

[wastewaterguru]

A. That is not a heavy rod (heavy for walleye or bass but not heavy for sturgeon)

B. An hour fight is not going to kill a sturgeon the way it would a walleye, bass, etc.

C. If you had fun than that's all that matters as long as the fish was handled and revived properly.

Check the catfish forum to see the gear that the guys that fish flatheads use. Then realize a 60 plus inch sturgeon is twice as strong as the largest flatheads in Minnesota.....then think again about what a "heavy" rod is.

I am going up with my e-glass Ugly Stick Tiger saltwater series medium-heavy spinning rods and the custom "settler". All rigged with nothing less than 80 pound braided. We got 6 over 60 inches last year with none taking more than 15 minutes to land.....

Trust me when I say 15 minutes still feels like a long time.

[jwmiller33]

A. That is not a heavy rod (heavy for walleye or bass but not heavy for sturgeon)

When I say "heavy" rod, that is what is says on the rod for power classification(ie, ultra light, light, medium light, medium, medium heavy, heavy). This one is a heavy, so yes it is.

I wish I would have been able to get this fish in in 15 minutes but that was not the case. It was hooked 2 inches below the mouth, so that added to the length of the fight. And I'm not exaggerating the length of the fight. I have time stamps on the video I took from the time I hooked it to the time we landed it.

[JimBuck]

Jake, I wasn't trying to step on any toes by giving the suggestion of bumping up to some beefier line. I've caught 60" class Sturgeon before and even my biggest of 66" took about 12 minutes on a MH 8' w/ 80lb. braid. As others have said, if you had a good time that's all that matters.

[ducksnbucks]

Miller33, I have to agree with JimBuck, your rod may say "Heavy" but that is no heavy rod. Last year we boated 3 sturgeon over 60" including a 67.5 x 28 and none of them took longer than 20 minutes to get in. We are using 7 to 7.5' muskie gear with 80 pound braid. People definitely need to bump up their gear becuase fighting a fish for 1+ hours is not good for the health of any fish no matter the size, especially if the fish gets caught more than once a year. None the less, nice looking fish.

[jwmiller33]

You guys read the fish was foul hooked right?

that will be the last time I ever post fish pics or reports.

like I said, if your that worried about long fights, I expect you guys to be yelling at the guys hooking them with walleye rods and spending half the day fighting them to cut their lines

It's not "good" for the health of a fish to be caught at all but that shouldn't stop people from catching them. The handling of the fish is much more important than how you catch them

[wastewaterguru]

I aint criticizing the length of the fight for any other reason than to make fun of ya for calling that a heavy rod

There is a reason these fish are recovering so well up there. Catch and release works. Whether it's a 10 minute fight or an hour, a sturgeon is not the same as a walleye.....they can take it.

My main reason for wanting to limit the time landing one is so that I can get my line back in the water for the next one.

[gloomiseye]

You guys read the fish was foul hooked right?

that will be the last time I ever post fish pics or reports.

like I said, if your that worried about long fights, I expect you guys to be yelling at the guys hooking them with walleye rods and spending half the day fighting them to cut their lines

It's not "good" for the health of a fish to be caught at all but that shouldn't stop people from catching them. The handling of the fish is much more important than how you catch them

Dont let them get you down, there is many peope here like myself that enjoy your pictures and videos.

[hawgchaser]

Great pictures and the story behind them, Jake. Reading all the helpful information, I'm reminded of the New Testament story where the folks are trying to word-pick Christ. He says, "You people gag on a gnat but will swallow a camel." I think there's some camel being eaten here. From what I know of sturgeon, they're as tough as catfish. A grizzled old timer told me once when I was fussing to put a catfish back in the water something to the effect that you could take it home for a couple days, let the cats & dogs gnaw on it and bring it back and let it swim away. Prehistoric fish did not survive til today by being fragile. Now wall hanger size walleye caught on down-riggers in the dog days is a different story.

[brmuskie]

Jake - I don't think anyone was yelling at you or being mean to you. Nice fish!

I look at it like this - people are offering you advice on how to improve upon your experience in the future. If you take their advice or not is up to you.

We had a couple boats next to us that actually thought all of the boats anchored in 4 mile bay were walleye fishing. They had no idea. I saw the same guy as you probably - hooked up for 2-3 hours before the line broke. I am not sure that sturgeon even knew it was hooked.

[JimBuck]

I was just trying to pass on some advice. I complimented you on the report and the great fish, it wasn't meant to be rude or belittling. If you want to use 30lb. test on fish that can greatly exceed that weight, so be it.

As with any other species, it's generally a good idea to be evenly matched when it comes to tackle. "Don't bring a knife to a gun fight."

[Surface Tension]

Nice fish Jake and the pictures are very good.

I know Jake is pretty self conscious about proper handling.

If I guy wants to battle a sturgeon on lighter tackle thats fine, not that his rod and 30 lb is light by any means, its just not heavy cat gear..

While 80 lb braid is good for river Cats, difference is your not pulling RR sturgeon from abrasions like log jambs or rocks.

I think my cat rod is rated at 30 lb but I'm spooled with 50 lb braid.

Push come to shove the rod will explode before the line breaks.

I've tried but so far I've just pulled hook out.

Anyway thanks all for the reports. This years Sturgeon Excursion looks very promising.

[19Biff_Youn]

Hello everybody it's my first post on this website. Hey it's my first time being up at the Rainy River and I'm 10 years old. My dad and his friend are coming. What bait have they been biting on? Any advice is helpful.

[uffdapete]

Just got back from a drive along the Rainy from I Falls to Indus. The Littlefork, Bigfork and Black rivers are out now and sending lots of ice chunks and debris into the Rainy. At one point above Indus there were ice chunks all the way across. Other places it appeared the current had pushed the bulk of it closer to the banks.

[19Biff_Youn]

Com'n up this weekend what bait should we use? Where should we fish? Whats the biggest sturgeon caught so far?

Young Biff.

[LABS4ME]

Young Biff,

Was up 2 weeks ago before all the debris and current. One ounce slip weights and circle hooks with a crawler is all you need for sturgeon. With the current you will need much more weight.... It is pretty simple to rig up for them.

Watch for debris when going up and down river and wear your life vest.. that water is dangerously cold.

Have a fun trip... do not get discouraged if it is slow... one fish can turn all that around.

Let us know how you do.

Get one this big! <)>>>>>>>>>{

Good Luck!

Ken

[wastewaterguru]

Well I certainly wasn't criticizing the use of lighter gear...I have been know to fish for sturgeon on my daughter's sponge-bob rod on occasion....

My point is that just because a bass/walleye casting or jigging rod says heavy action it means it's heavy for a bass/walleye. It doesn't mean it's heavy in the context of a big lake sturgeon.

Not everyone wants to go get a special rod for big sturgeon and I am all for using what you got.

I posted with a smile on my face about that being a heavy rod because it's not a heavy rod for big fish......

The majority of the fish caught when sturgeon fishing are 35 to 45 inches which most guys can handle on just about any rod and reel so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to criticize.

I just had a chuckle after seeing the pictures of what you called a "heavy" rod......

Wasn't trying to offend.....and I'm sorry if it came off that way.

[Brett Waldera]

Young Biff,

I would fish the 4 mile bay area if you are looking more for numbers of fish with the chance at a big fish. Although, I generally target the river more for a higher size average of sturgeon. Birchdale, Frontier, and Vidas landings are all good areas to try. Anchor on the front side of the holes and use a slip sinker rig with a large single hook and thread on about 3-4 crawlers. The more current the heavier the sinker...I would have from 2 oz up to 6 oz along for sure. The more debris or current the shorter lead I will use. I rarely use one longer than a foot and will go down to having the hook right to the sinker.

If the river is full of debris it will be busy in the bay as that makes fishing much tougher in the river.

I like to bring two anchors and try to keep the boat as steady as possible...then just watch the rod tip to bend and set the hook.

It one takes one fish to make the trip. Enjoy the experience and best of luck to you!

Brett Waldera